Couple thoughts on AI - 2024-10-06
Consider me someone with weird taste, but I love AI - the storytelling, the moral dillemas, finally the world of far future when the protagonist is awoken by an alien race. Of course I’m talking about the Spielberg’s movie, not the world wide hype of artificial intelligence. But let’s talk about the other one too....
On being pescetarian - 2024-07-31
End of this month marks 4 years since I went pescetarian - for those of you unfamiliar, that’s not eating meat except for that coming from seafood....
The way I build software - part 2 - 2024-02-19
Since I wrote the previous post on this topic not much has really changed. I’m still using my stack of choice and enjoying it more than ever. However from time to time I find a piece of techology that feels right too. Since some time ago, I have been using the following tech to slighly improve my day-to-day workflow....
All the time - 2024-01-11
Two weeks ago, on December 24th, we were hosting a traditional Christmas’ Eve dinner for 4. At 4pm in the afternoon, when we started preparing the dinner the electricity went out. The whole village was dark and many had the same problem as we did: how to prepare food when ovens and stoves are electric? Many postponed the dinner until late or next day as electricity only got back before 8pm....
Busy times - 2022-09-07
You haven’t heard from me in almost three months, but I’m still around, just very, very busy!...
De-christianization - 2022-06-16
A week ago I completed my quest to leave church. It’s a good feeling to have the quest behind me, and I wish everyone who want to do a similar thing should be able to do it easily....
God Syndrome - 2022-05-25
Recently I have failed miserably by planting some of my seedlings too early. The day after frost happened and I lost some peppers and tomatoes. I cried that day as I put a lot of effort into nurturing them, but the truth is they both don’t grow naturally in 50°N, so I was rightfully taught a lesson by Nature....
Windows vs Walls - 2022-04-13
Questions are like open windows, while answers are like walls....
Leverage it! - 2022-04-01
Everything in our lives can be a leverage....
Ideal Consumers - 2022-03-23
But the 8-hour workday is too profitable for big business, not because of the amount of work people get done in eight hours (the average office worker gets less than three hours of actual work done in 8 hours) but because it makes for such a purchase-happy public. Keeping free time scarce means people pay a lot more for convenience, gratification, and any other relief they can buy. It keeps them watching television, and its commercials. It keeps them unambitious outside of work....
Solving meta problems - 2022-03-11
Let’s face it, most of us solve meta problems....
On dying - 2022-02-17
I recently attended a funeral. The person who died was a 92 years old man who spent his last ~40 years fighting paralysis, then diabetes, which cost him both of his legs, then disability, then inability to leave this world on his own terms, then dementia interleaved with Covid-19....
Race to bottom - 2022-01-26
Yesterday, I saw “Take Your Pills” documentary which explores drug, mostly Adderall and Ritalin , (ab)use in USA. While the movie has its higs and lows when it comes to storytelling, it’s good at looking at the topic from different points of view. If you have a spare 1.5 hours then it’s an interesting piece of filmography....
Way upstream - 2022-01-25
“There comes a point where we need to stop just pulling people out of the river. We need to go upstream and find out why they’re falling in.” — Desmond Tutu...
My Music - 2022-01-19
I grew up in a countryside in a house on the edge of a huge forest. As a kid I was spending my days out there picking mushrooms, berries, playing with my siblings and cousins. When at school I often spent hours coming back home through plains & woods, sitting under big old beech trees doing homework or reading books....
More is coming - 2022-01-14
As you may have noticed my site has changed recently. There’s certainly more focus on the “log” now, which is very intentional: I am going to write more....
Less people - 2020-07-22
On the other day I read a BBC story about dropping fertility rates and how that’s gonna affect our society....
Unlinked - 2020-07-03
I long hesitated about removing my LinkedIn profile, but it has not proved useful in past few years, so I happily let it go....
Nomadic nature - 2020-05-17
Today I realised my true nature is nomadic....
Endless hacking - 2020-04-18
I feel like writing web software is endless hacking - it’s like bunch of different technologies glued together so they may work, but sometimes they don’t for no apparent reason....
Small things - 2020-03-30
I love the fact that in decimal notation you can change 0.5 into 0.25 by adding just one character, and the same goes for 0.25 -> 0.125 , 0.5 -> 0.75 , 0.75 -> 0.875 , etc....
Think about others - 2020-03-23
It’s year 2000-something. A white couple moves into a small village in a Japanese countryside. Days go one by one, seasons change, those two try to blend in, in the meantime they see how locals live close to the nature, children are born, elders die, time goes by....
Life is simple - 2020-03-08
Life is simple....
It's bloody disgusting - 2020-01-27
Disclaimer #1: My family is Polish, I was born in Poland and lived 35 out of my 38 years here, so this is my completely biased opinion about my home country....
We must change - 2020-01-23
I found an inspiring article on BBC News about climate change and how to tackle it, and the following part speaks right into my heart:...
Rewards - 2020-01-21
If you punish a child for being naughty, and reward him for being good, he will do right merely for the sake of the reward; and when he goes out into the world and finds that goodness is not always rewarded, nor wickedness always punished, he will grow into a man who only thinks about how he may get on in the world, and does right or wrong according as he finds advantage to himself. — Immanuel Kant...
Hell is other people - 2020-01-20
Killing one’s creativity and motivation with uncertainty and doubt is a crime against life....
Thank you, Marie - 2019-12-11
I listen to your songs now, as I’ve been doing for the most of my life....
The patient fan (two years later) - 2019-11-22
As you know I called myself a patient fan two years ago. Guess what, I know almost nothing about Star Wars Episode IX!...
Craving for sugar - 2019-08-15
Last 3 months of my life were like a rollercoaster ride fuelled by couple of decisions back in May. I didn’t expect those would have such an impact on my life, so I welcomed them happily only to end up struggling to find any sort of balance. Only the last weekend I was able to afford first full 2 days of rest since April or early May. Phew, it’s already behind me....
Goodbye Twitter - 2018-09-24
It’s been almost a year since I last actively used Twitter, and honestly, I’ve never missed it much during that time. Sure, I check some of my favourite profiles from time to time, but that’s all, I don’t need Twitter account for that anymore. So I deleted my Twitter profile today, and I don’t see myself coming back....
Notes to future self - part 2 - 2018-02-16
Hello older Jakub. Since the time you wrote down that list there are couple more notes to be added. So I hope you still…...
New beginnings - 2018-01-14
“You can’t go back and change the beginning, but you can start where you are and change the ending.” — C.S Lewis...
Christmas gifts - 2017-12-24
As far as I remember I’ve always had trouble getting presents for my family. As Christmas time approached I felt more nervous, looking for ideas everywhere, procrastinating it as far as I could....
From within - 2017-12-01
We’ve all heard that a lie repeated a thousand times becomes the truth, which in the “overconnected” world is more dangerous than ever. But if we go from macro scale of external world to micro scale of our own mind, we’ll find the statement equally true....
The patient fan - 2017-11-22
The very first movie I saw at a cinema was “The Neverending Story” deep in the mid-80s. That’s one of the earliest memories from my childhood and also a very fond one. That event, or couple of them as I eventually saw the movie 4 times, started my love affair with the big screen....
Feedback loops - 2017-11-05
When people get into software development, sooner or later they figure out the concept of feedback loops. We start with writing some code, then follow with testing it - if it doesn’t work we go back to fix it, when it does we move on to write some more code. Then it goes like this until a piece of software is done. Luckily a single loop can be as short as few minutes, so we can iterate quickly and feel rewarded for what we do....
Dear older generations - 2017-10-08
I respect you a lot. You were the ones who raised us, who taught us by example how to work hard, who invested a lot of resources in making local and global environments better....
Notes to future self - 2017-10-04
Hello older Jakub. Here’s your younger self at the age of 35 who hopes you…...
Saying no - 2017-09-10
Over my career in IT I turned down many offers, sometimes based on location or technology, but mostly based on employer’s industry....
Fellow humans - 2017-08-20
Over the years I’ve built a folder with words of wisdom. I often reach them to find inspiration or moral guidance....
On happiness - 2017-08-11
Two years ago I learned about hedonic adaptation and it changed my life forever....
The bit about myself - 2017-07-30
It’s only the second post on this log’s return, but I chose a truly hard topic to write about: something meaningful about myself. So let’s do it, there’s no try....